PAX Americana

"...And still the United States continues to see itself as some self-help guru for the world. Just swallow the Uncle Sam Pill, and you too can be happier and more fulfilled. But what exactly is it that America offers the world? What can newly 'liberated' countries like Iraq and Afghanistan look forward to? Fast food, inner city crime, plastic surgery, Michael Jackson, and a gameshow version of democracy. No wonder they are still resisting...."

"America dominates the world politically.

If this were true, America would be so indisputably powerful that it always gets its way. Except that it doesn't. Look at the Iraq war. As causes go, this should have been a pretty easy one to argue. But America's attempt to get the UN to agree to the resolution failed dismally - and in a tremendously embarrassing way for the 'politically dominant' US. Where were all these politically subordinate countries which rushed to agree to whatever America wanted? Hmm. Remember the laughable list of 'allies' in the war against terror. Look at the first country on this list - Afghanistan! Followed by such mighty political allies as Eritrea, Micronesia, and Latvia. Can anyone hear a hollow scraping sound? And then Turkey - that mighty superpower - refused to let America use its military bases. The frantic and undignified combination of begging and threats which followed can hardly be construed as 'political dominance' even by the average American. The sad thing is, that after the deaths of 2000 innocent American citizens on September 11th, almost the entire world was firmly on America's side. Yet over the next 18 months the American government's prize-winning political ignorance dispelled all this good-will, turning most of those countries against it, and losing most of the support it had. At the one time when the US had the world on its side - it blew it. Not only is America not politically dominant, but it's not even politically canny."

"America dominates the world culturally.

America has flooded the world with the finest composers, the giants of literature, and the greatest thinkers. America has provided the world with the most highly valued works of art, the most superb culinary dishes, and the most refined fashions.

Right?

Well not quite. America's cultural legacy to the world seems to be based more on McDonalds, Nike trainers, baseball caps, Hollywood action movies, Britney Spears, and 'The Simpsons'. What this actually means is that America is fantastic at exporting popular culture. Popular culture by definition is transitory, worthless, and uninspiring. Any 'cultural dominance' which America can claim is confined primarily to Japanese teenagers, and European pre-teens. Rome created a lasting template for systems of government and justice. Greece built the foundations of philosophy, science and mathematics. Egypt continues to whisper its mysterious spiritual fascination down through the ages. Britain gave the world its lingua franca. America invented the hamburger. "

Oh, you have to read the rest of the page....

Entertaining and informative.

One thing I'd hve to disagree with the author on though...when he speaks of "culture" that America has exported, in terms of Art...

Black people gave America and the world, the Blues, and especially Jazz Music, which is the heights of Musical Art form...

"America currently owes the rest of the world $1.2 trillion dollars. Say that aloud to yourself slowly. One point two trillion dollars. That means each American citizen owes just under $5,000 to another country. Of that sum, they will owe around $2000 to Japan alone. Some economic dominance huh? America's 'riches' are actually an illusion. Borrowing large sums of money might make you feel richer than other people for a short time, but all it actually means is that you are more in debt. This is a mistake made by naive students the first time they get approved for an overdraft...and by the US government.

'But the US dollar is the preferred unit of currency around the world' we hear you cry. Well, strictly speaking gold is the preferred unit of currency for the connoisseur. For those Americans who may have gleaned the wrong impression here, people all over the world do not wander around with wallets full of dollars. The exception being, of course, black marketeers, underworld criminals, and Saddam Hussein. Perhaps this is an indication of how easy it is to launder American currency - and that is nothing to be proud of. For the reputable financial entities, dollars are a convenient denomination to make sure everyone is using the same yardstick, but that's possibly because, since so many countries are owed so many of the 1.2 trillion American dollars, it's easier to swap the IOUs directly, than to bother converting them into other currencies first.

Now, there is probably at least one economic specialist amongst our readership who no doubt will put up some argument proving that America is richer than everyone else. But most 10-year-olds can probably work out that a country with a debt of $1.2 trillion dollars is probably not as economically dominant as it might like to think."

Quote from CaptainObvious:

I would love to see our country turn off the money faucet to the rest of the world. You might be singing a different tune then, and I'll bet it would be the blues.

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Obviously you never bothered reading the whole thing and you are woefully unaware that the money faulcet we would turn off is the worlds own money.....

So why don't all these "rich" Euros and Asians pull their money? Why doesn't the rest of the world just call our bluff, if in fact we're bluffing, as you suggest? The answer is simple and "obvious". The U.S.A. goes down, the whole world goes down with it.

how enlightening, please share each and everytime the author is inspired with such brilliant insights!!

BRAVO! By the way, all you right-wing wack jobs, don't even think about QUESTIONING HIS PATRIOTISM. For the True Patriot is brave enough to call his country worthless and its citizen imbeciles!

Remember, if you too think the USA is worthless, full of illerate imbeciles and is good only as a supplier of cultural rot...

VOTE DEMOCRAT IN NOVEMBER!

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No I don't question the patriotism of America bashers, I question their intelligence. If the USA is "full of illiterate imleciles" and so on, that would include all of us, Dem and Repub. So what's your point? Why vote at all if that's the way you feel?

So you think a load of debt like Uncle Sam's is a sign of a healthy robust economy?

Quote from CaptainObvious:

So why don't all these "rich" Euros and Asians pull their money? Why doesn't the rest of the world just call our bluff, if in fact we're bluffing, as you suggest? The answer is simple and "obvious". The U.S.A. goes down, the whole world goes down with it.

So you think a load of debt like Uncle Sam's is a sign of a healthy robust economy?

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No! I don't! In fact I think it'll bite us in the ass down the road, but that's not the jest of what I took from your orginal post. If that's your point, we agree. But if you're just another "America sucks" person, then we dis-agree.